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Jean Charest&rsquo;s Liberals tossed out after almost a decade in power as voters turn to PQ to govern the province.

A man is arrested by police after a gunman shot and killed one person and injured another during the Parti Quebecois victory rally in Montreal last night. (Olivier Pontbriand / LA PRESSE)

Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois is whisked off stage as she delivered her victory speech in Tuesday, Que. September 4, 2012. With the win, Marois becomes the first female premier in Quebec history. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Dressed in a blue bathrobe, the suspect bellowed in French, "the English are rising," as he was led into a police cruiser. (CBC)

Parti Quebecois supporters cheer as results are posted at the party headquarters Tuesday, September 4, 2012 in Montreal. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois is removed from the stage by SQ officers as
she speaks to supporters in Montreal, Tuesday, September 4, 2012 following her
election win.

By Bruce Campion-Smith and Allan WoodsStaff Reporters

Wed., Sept. 5, 2012

MONTREAL–The Parti Québécois victory party was interrupted Tuesday night by a dramatic early-morning twist after two people were shot at Pauline Marois’ celebration.

An unidentified 62-year-old man armed with an assault rifle and a handgun opened fire in a vestibule outside the hall. One person was killed and another injured, police said. After being quickly apprehended by Montreal police, the man wearing a bathrobe and a balaclava, was heard shouting “the anglos are waking up” in French with an English accent.“There’s going to be f-ing payback. It’s enough. Wanna make trouble.”

. Instead of rushing into the main hall, the attacker then paused to start a fire. A door to the venue erupted after being doused with accelerant, just metres from where Marois spoke.

Marois was in the middle of her speech when she was bundled off the stage by her security detail in front of a packed hall.

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Police spoke to reporters early Wednesday outside the venue where Marois spoke to her supporters, and while they did not reveal the suspect’s name, they said he is 62 years old.

Lieut. Guy Lapointe of the Quebec Provincial Police said investigators have so far been unable to establish whether Marois was a possible target, but because the possibility exists, the provincial force is “taking change of the investigation.”

Lapointe said two weapons were seized at the scene, adding that the life of the second shooting victim taken to hospital in critical condition was no longer in danger.

Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said police continue to scour the area for any additional incendiary devices. He added that four or five families in the vicinity had been evacuated for safety reasons. He said detectives have met with about 15 witnesses so far as the investigation continues.

Lapointe would not comment on increased security around Marois but added that he doesn’t believe the premier-elect is in any danger.

The incident marred a triumphant evening in which Marois won 55 seats, short of the 63 seats needed for a majority in the 125-seat National Assembly, but enough to make her Quebec’s first woman premier.

In her speech, Marois vowed to be the premier of “all Quebecers” but also put the party’s separatist agenda in play.

“We want a country. And we will have it,” she told a sea of supporters waving the province’s blue fleurdelisé flags at the PQ’s packed Montreal headquarters.

“I want to address our neighbours across Canada. You must understand that as a nation, we want to make our own decisions about those things that concern us ... I invite you to welcome these aspirations that we have with openness,” she said.

Then the PQ leader turned her remarks to the supporters gathered in the theatre.

It’s a bruising loss for Jean Charest and his Liberals, an indictment of a nearly decade-old government battered by corruption allegations in the province, student protests and that in the end, looked worn out.

While the Liberals turned in a surprisingly strong second-place showing with 49 seats — avoiding the embarrassing third-place finish that some had predicted in the campaign’s final days — Charest lost his own seat in Sherbrooke.

Speaking in his riding, Charest took responsibility for his party’s loss but said the results send a message of national unity.

“I want to say to all of you . . . interested in the future of Quebec, that the result of this election campaign speaks to the fact that the future of Quebec lies within Canada,” said Charest said.

“This is not the result I wished for . . . but I can tell you I have the ultimate conviction that our party will continue to serve Quebec,” said Charest, who was silent about his own future as party leader.

The emotion of the night played heavily on the face of his wife Michelle Dionne as she stood beside him onstage.

Third place went to upstart Coalition Avenir Québec led by François Legault. With results still being tallied an hour after the polls had closed, the CAQ had won 19 seats — 10 more than it had before — but well short of the high expectations that had them on track to form the Opposition.

But those high hopes sputtered on election day, perhaps because the fledgling party lacked the ground game to get its supporters to the polls.

“Quebecers gave us tonight many signs of encouragement but also a lesson of humility so we will need to listen,” Legault told supporters.

“The challenge was absolutely enormous,” he said, adding that the election had given birth to a “new political force” in Quebec.

Québec Solidaire, a left-leaning party, doubled their seats to two. Co-leader Francoise David offered her party’s full support on issues of gender equality.

“And of course we’ll be on her side when she promotes sovereignty,” David told supporters Tuesday night.

Still, David’s election in Gouin was greeted with boos at the Parti Québécois headquarters and the chant, “One Quebec, one country,” giving a hint of the bitterness that the sovereigntist vote had been split between the two parties and that David had defeated a long-serving and well-performing PQ deputy.

Marois joins woman premiers who lead Newfoundland, British Columbia, Alberta and Nunavut.

“I can tell you that I’m very moved to be the first one on whom this responsibility falls,” Marois said of her place as the first woman premier in Quebec.

“I say to all women tonight I will try to honour us all,” she said.

Now the questions are what Marois’ victory means for Quebec, her party’s sovereignty ambitions and relations with the rest of Canada, notably the federal government.

As the election result became clear, Prime Minister Stephen Harper congratulated Marois on her victory but said that Quebecers don’t want to revive past separatism battles.

“The people of Quebec have made the decision to elect a minority government led by the Parti Québécois,” Harper said in a statement.

“We do not believe that Quebecers wish to revisit the old constitutional battles of the past.”

He said the federal government will stay focused on “jobs, economic growth and sound management of the economy” and said those were the priorities of Quebec too.

“With this in mind, we will continue to work with the Government of Quebec toward our common goals,” Harper said.

But just how that relationship plays out remains to be seen.

Even during the campaign, Marois was threatening to put Quebec on a collision course with Harper’s Conservatives in Ottawa. She made clear that she would be upsetting years of relative calm between the two governments by demanding new powers for Quebec in areas such as employment insurance and culture.

Ottawa’s failure to deliver on any of those demands would only bolster the PQ’s case for sovereignty, she said. During the campaign, Marois tried to reassure voters that a Parti Québécois victory would not reignite old separatism battles and said the economy would be her immediate priority too.

Apart from promises of confrontation with the Harper government, Marois’ campaign promised numerous controversial measures intended to boost French culture, language and identity in Quebec. The PQ wants to introduce new language laws that would force small businesses to work in French and cut down on the use of English, which she claims is on the rise in big cities like Montreal.

Marois has also pledged to bring in a secular charter that would prohibit public employees like school teachers and bureaucrats from wearing religious symbols like head Muslim headscarves and Jewish kippas in the workplace. That same charter would exempt symbols belonging to the Catholic faith, like the crucifix hanging in Quebec’s National Assembly, which the PQ claims are part of the province’s history and heritage.

Tuesday night, Marois, who had campaigned on controversial French-first initiatives to put French first, singled out anglo-Quebeckers in her speech.

“Don’t worry. Your rights will be fully protected,” she said.

But that agenda — and the separatist ambitions — are certain to be held in check by the PQ’s minority status and the fact that the Marois will have to seek compromises with other parties to remain in power.

“We’ve always said that there would be a referendum when the majority of Quebecers support it,” said PQ deputy Bernard Drainville. “Obviously if the minority situation is confirmed, it makes things more difficult.”

Still, he called Marois a “woman of consensus” well-suited to lead in a minority situation.

“She is capable I think of putting forward measures and engagements that we’ve made that will get support in a minority situation and I think that she’ll be equally capable on other measures to find a good compromise, to have the latitude, openness and dialogue that will allow this government to work,” Drainville said.

“The thing that’s important tonight is that Quebecers made a choice and we have to respect that choice. The last thing they want is another election in three months or six months,” he said.

On the separatism front, a go-slow approach would seem to suit Quebecers.

Unlike previous elections — the PQ has held already two referendums on sovereignty — the issue of separation took a back seat in this vote. A CROP poll Friday found that support for the idea of an independent Quebec actually dropped during the campaign to under 30 per cent.

Legault tried to capitalize on that waning separatist sentiment, warning that a vote for the PQ would invite a referendum and with it, turmoil that would undermine the province’s economy.

“Only the Coalition is in a position to block a referendum,” Legault said over the weekend.

Legault, a founder of the vacation airline Air Transat, pitched his party as an alternative to the Liberals, one they could choose without sparking tortured constitutional wrangling. But he was also hoping to woo PQ backers too.

“I’m reaching out to Liberals who can’t take it anymore, the negligence, the corruption,” Legault said late last month. “I’m calling out to pequistes.”

The party’s early days were fired up when Jacques Duchesneau, former police in Montreal and anti-hero corruption her in the province, jumped onboard as a candidate. He won his seat in the riding of Saint-Jerome.

Legault himself is a former ardent separatist who has served in the cabinets of several PQ governments. But the focus of his fledgling party has been the economy and he’s promised to put off any sovereignty vote for at least 10 years.

Charest gambled with his early August election call that the economy would trump voters’ concerns and that Quebecers would again turn to the Liberals. He warned that a vote for the PQ would invite chaos and he appealed to the “silent majority” for votes.

“The choice is clear,” Charest said at Aug. 1 campaign launch. “It’s between stability and instability.”

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